Many of us read books about personality development, positive thinking and so on. And then we try to inculcate the optimism, "feel good" attitudes that are mentioned in those books. Well, when life is smooth sailing, it is so easy to be optimistic. It is so easy to preach about positive thinking. But then the real application is during times of adversities. It is then we need oodles of optimism, positive thinking, faith and so on. It is only then our strengths are tested. And if we stick to our postive attitudes through all the abysses, then I believe that we can say that we are the real optimists. And who knows , some of us might author some postive thinking books too. ;-)

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How does a person react when hard knocks and fortune strike together?

Most of the times, as I have seen, the good news gets mislaid somewhere amidst all the anguishness and inflictions. The tragedy always has an upper hand.